


where do we go now that they're gone?

by pommeideas



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, 陈情令 | The Untamed (TV) RPF
Genre: "but it will hit you like heavy angst" or so I was told, Established Relationship, Grief/Mourning, Light Angst, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-19
Updated: 2019-12-19
Packaged: 2021-02-26 22:22:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 815
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21860122
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pommeideas/pseuds/pommeideas
Summary: One terrible day, a mad creature snaps its fingers and destroys half of the universe.Wang Yibo disappears.Xiao Zhan stays behind.
Relationships: Wang Yi Bo/Xiao Zhan
Comments: 18
Kudos: 140





	where do we go now that they're gone?

**Author's Note:**

> I was taking a shower when my mind went "BJYX INFINITY WAR AU" and luckily it's my day off so here is a self-indulgent little crossover drabble (I'm still in my bathrobe as I post this please don't expect quality).
>
>> Translation into [Vietnamese](https://my.w.tt/iAU8ag6eb7) available.

> Are you alright?
> 
> _The person you are trying to reach is unavailable. Please try again._
> 
> Yibo?
> 
> _The person you are trying to reach is unavailable. Please try again.  
_
> 
> _The person you are trying to reach is unavailable. Please try again._
> 
> Yibo answer me please
> 
> You’re scaring me
> 
> Please tell me you’re alive

In the mess that has become the world, when everything is left in shambles, there is still money to be made. Xiao Zhan keeps getting offers from various companies who want him to be the face of a China that stands proud in the wake of tragedy. He only takes one — the one where he is not asked to smile — and tells himself he is doing it for Yibo. He looks awful, red-eyed and pale-faced, too thin and weary under his mourning-colored suit, and for the first time in a long time, he doesn’t care what the people think. Xiao Zhan has his own pain to deal with.

He quits acting, using most of his savings to pay off his broken contract, and goes back to live with his mother. She needs him, too, and he should be there for her now that his father is not. **  
**

He is incredibly grateful to find Jianguo meowing at him when he crosses the threshold.

Even though the relentless grief that claws at his mind does not allow him to forget that Yibo is gone, his body doesn’t know it yet. It’s still a habit to reach for his phone to check if there are any new messages from him, or to share a fun idea that crossed his mind (_not that there are any fun ideas in Xiao Zhan’s mind these days_). He often finds himself scrolling up their conversation, a stream of teasing jokes and memes and quiet affection that begins a little more than a year ago and ends with five unread messages.

It takes him five months to gather the courage to contact Yibo’s family. A long time ago, Yibo gave him his mother’s phone number —_ in case of emergencies_, he had said.

It is not an emergency. It never had the chance to be one (_there was never any hope_).

Xiao Zhan still calls.

“Can we meet up?” he says, voice choked up. “I would like to talk about… about Yibo. If it’s not too much trouble.”

The woman on the phone muffles a sob.

“Yes,” she says. “Yes, we should do that.”

They talk. Yibo’s parents show him his childhood pictures, and Xiao Zhan even gets to leave with a few of them. Xiao Zhan cries on the shoulder of Yibo’s mom and can’t help but think, _we should have told them sooner_.

He watches videos of him, sometimes, and doesn’t leave his room for a few days. But he’s doing well, mostly. He has a job as an art teacher in a local elementary school (_they would hire anyone now, even without the correct degree. The school calls it art therapy. Xiao Zhan calls it bullshit)_. The kids keep drawing little dust specks in grey crayon and he doesn’t know if he should tell them to stop.

A year after the event, he goes to a support group for the first time. Some people recognize him, but no one cares anymore. Xiao Zhan tries not to remember a time when crowds followed him like a trail of worshippers, clinging to his every word, to _their_ every word—

He listens to other people’s stories but can’t bring himself to open his mouth. Not this time, and not the time after that, and not the third time either.

He stops going. He already knows how the story ends.

His mother progressively stops trying to get him to go on dates with sad lonely women. Nobody would want Xiao Zhan anyway, not anymore — too thin, too tired, too many sharp edges. He keeps his hair short and hides his sleepless eyes behind heavy frames.

Another year passes and things stay the same except Xiao Zhan tries to stop looking at Yibo's face so often, tries to stop holding his name all the time in his mind like a prayer, but he still wakes up sometimes and wishes he could fade into nothingness too.

He hits thirty and celebrates with a decent group of friends, but he’s still missing one, missing one, missing one.

Xiao Zhan is thirty-three and world-weary when rings of fire tear up the fabric of reality and people start pouring out of them. There is a moderate-sized one in the outskirts of the city, so Xiao Zhan hops into his car and takes the road, along with thousands of people, and tries not to put too much faith in fate.

Xiao Zhan is thirty-three, and crying, and Yibo is twenty-two and beautiful and _not-dead _when he steps out of the void and smiles a confused smile and says,

“Zhan-ge?”


End file.
